


You Smile When You Dive In (Like You're Never Coming Back)

by Amanita_Cynth



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Drift Compatibility, F/F, Gen, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Temporary Character Death, Timeline Shenanigans, Unreliable Narrator, everyones together because i say so and fic is inherently self-indulgent, for pacific rim, for the old guard, its booker and he gets called out for it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27251224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amanita_Cynth/pseuds/Amanita_Cynth
Summary: "Booker’s penance is cut short when Quynh returns and the monsters rise from the ocean in short order. They toil for four days straight and, when there is no-one left to save, sleep for nearly two."A couple of years after the escape from Merrick's pharmaceuticals, the first Kaiju make landfall. The Old Guard make sure that they're going to be involved in the fighting back, starting with getting into the new Jaeger Program.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Comments: 18
Kudos: 59





	1. Go row the boat to safer grounds

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I'll follow you through the dark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25853854) by [emorion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emorion/pseuds/emorion). 



> Title from Fear The Water by SYML - I thought it was appropriate. 
> 
> So I've watched The Old Guard at least 5 times now, and I was surprised at how basically nobody had written a fic about how absolutely perfectly Drift Compatible literally all of those found family are (but especially Joe and Nicky). Shout out to emorion for their series and interesting ideas that make perfect sense, like Booker and the Hansons getting close. But I wanted to tackle one with all of the immortal gang, despite how it makes no sense with timelines. I'm just fudging that without explanation.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Old Guard try to handle the emergence of alien monsters and get themselves into the centre of the fight.
> 
> OR
> 
> The author writes a prologue.

Booker’s penance is cut short when Quynh returns and the monsters rise from the ocean in short order. 

Their trivial infighting becomes so obviously trivial in the face of the horrible monstrosity that tears across the United States and leaves tens of thousands dead in its wake. They meet again there for the first time since their schism and silently work together to save who they can in the aftermath. They toil for four days straight and, when there is no-one left to save, sleep for nearly two. 

It’s then that the reunions truly take place: Quynh furious and sad and broken and slow, so slow, to accept Andy’s crushing relief at seeing her and unwilling to believe that they searched until they could no more; Booker melancholy and anxious and missed more than he believed, still shouted at and raged at but accepted back into the fold without reservations that they had no time for.

The petty conflicts stop for the next few months as everyone holds their breath, though profiteering assholes don’t. The missions are basically milk-runs, getting everyone used to each other and leaving space for the emotional outbursts that inevitably occur. 

It also leaves them free for when the next one hits, in Manila, and they get there as quickly as they can when everyone’s trying to go the other way. Most people are already dead, from the rampage and the nuclear strike and what is starting to be called Kaiju Blue, but there is still good for them to do. They take longer to succumb to the bloodmist and can revive if they do, so they take to doing retrieval missions for important items and supplies, with Andy very begrudgingly left behind to help those in their hastily assembled safe camp. 

When the authorities finally arrived they weren’t quite fast enough to get out and were told that they saved hundreds from dying of exposure, starvation and sickness, thanked for their efforts. 

Nicky raged about it later. 

“A hundred lives, two hundred lives, what does it matter?” He cried in a rare show of extreme emotion. Booker reached for his flask then remembered it had run out in their days in Manila and slumped further in his seat with a sigh. “These hellish creatures are slaughtering entire cities! We should be doing something.”

“What, Nicky?” Andy had asked, wearier than they’d heard her in a long time as Quynh pressed tighter against her side. “Look at the size of them. You saw yourself the way that their blood burns through fabric and steel and stone. What else could we possibly do?” 

There were no arguments against that, but the following silence was tense and unhappy. 

‘Kaiceph’ lands in Cabo San Lucas and the military has to take out half the city to stop it progressing further. They go, because what else can they do, to find that the response is a bit better this time. Still, there are people that need help and cannot get it; there will _always_ be people who need help. 

And apparently, they’re already getting a bit of a reputation, because the aid workers that arrive don’t seem too surprised when they run into the lethal zone and come back. They don’t intervene much in the way they handle their little camp, and don’t say anything when a fight breaks out amongst some of the survivors and is swiftly and painfully brought to a stop.

“It’s too risky to continue like this.” Andy scowled afterwards. “Some of them recognised us from Manila.” There was apparently a dearth of people willing to wade into the aftermath of a so-called ‘Kaiju’ attack. 

“I was asked what charity we worked for.” Booker offered, exhausted. He’d lost his flask, most of his clothes and a solid portion of his torso to a surprise globule of Kaiju blood, and had only gotten one of those back. He’d been very unhappy about it, and it had been hard to explain on their return. “Apparently we are impressive.” 

“We can’t do _nothing_.” Nile protested immediately. 

“Agreed.” Nicky crossed his arms, Joe nodding silently. “We can keep our secret still, like this.” 

“Copley can cover our digital tracks. He can’t stop people talking.” Booker snorted. “If we continue, we will get attention, one way or another.”

“At this rate, it won’t matter.” Quynh said, cutting through the conversation like she always did. 

“We do good.” Nile declared. “Andy, we have to do something.” 

“When we can do more, we will.” She said, and that was that. 

Sydney happens. Scissure happens. Quynh kills two looters who try to rob them, and everyone silently agrees to not talk about the way she’d cursed and snarled and sobbed about the horror of humanity in a tangle of ancient tongues afterwards. 

Too many die, the ones they save like a fistful of sand in a desert, and when they’ve narrowly escaped the attention of the government Nicky locks himself in a bathroom for a day, not even letting Joe in. Nobody’s sure if he spends the time crying like Andy, or wanting to drink like Booker does, or praying like Nile, but when he comes out he says one simple thing that all of them agree with. 

“This has to stop.” 

Their months of complaining about the world governments’ inaction only lessens slightly with the formation of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps and the reveal of the proposed Jaegers. 

“Oh my god.” Nile stares at the news report as Nicky muttered something in a dialect of Italian too old for her to understand more than the disbelieving gist of. 

“Another point for the Japanese.” Booker says sardonically, and huffs when Quynh punches him in the arm. It’s been just over a year since the world changed forever, and it’s been a year where they’ve all grown impossibly closer, where they can joke around like that without a problem. 

“So we’re just doin’ anime, then?” Nile threw her hands up. “That’s what we’re goin’ with?” 

“‘To fight monsters, we must become monsters’?” Nicky repeats, voice dripping with disdain. “A sentiment we have heard too many times.” 

“To be fair,” Joe smiles, “There have not been literal monsters before.” 

There’s a pause as everyone considers that. 

“I would disagree.” Quynh says quietly, and the mood dampens for a moment as everyone also considers _that_. 

“Giant robots.” Andy muses, tucking her girlfriend closer against her side absenty. “That’s certainly a new one.” 

“Of course you’re excited about a new kind of weapon, boss.” Joe snorts, and the tension is gone as quickly as it rose. 

It’s when Copley passes on the information about the Drift system and the progress of it that the bickering starts. By this point there’s no doubt that the attacks aren’t going to stop and they have to be on the frontline; they’re the best fighters in the world, and they can’t die in droves like soldiers have been so far. The issue of staying under the radar is something they aren’t sure how to deal with and can’t make certain plans for, but it seems worth the risk. 

Because if the world ended, what would happen to them? 

The main issue they argue over for days is this: Joe and Nicky will obviously be together. If there was a more accurate example of ‘Drift Compatible’ out there they’d all agreed to cover the two men’s date costs for the rest of their lives, considering how inconceivable it was. But who else would be piloting together is far more hard to agree on. 

Nobody’s too keen to have Booker in their heads right now except for Nile. Nile has immortality on her side but none of the years of experience they had, so she might struggle to keep up. Andy has the most experience of them all, but is horrifyingly mortal and even more so stubborn. And Quynh, who could undoubtedly match up with her best even after all of their time apart, is rightfully terrified of the sea after her ordeal, rusty on modern languages and fighting, and more than a little unstable still in a way that everyone skirts around carefully in the conversations but is still felt anyway. 

Nobody can Drift with outsiders for obvious reasons, but nobody wants to be left behind either. 

Eventually, they settle on Nile and Andy being the second fighting pair. It’s not ideal- no option is ideal- but they need Andy’s edge of combat experience and Nile had gotten through to her more than any of the men had managed before Quynh returned, and was a new enough immortal that she should be able to keep Andy safe through multiple deaths of her own. They were extremes that would balance each other out. Andy was too used to being immortal, to impaling herself on a sword to ensure she got close enough to cut her attacker’s throat; Nile wasn’t used to it enough, and continued to duck and flinch and pause when wounded in fights. 

Nile kept losing momentum, but Andy wouldn’t let her do that. Andy, newly mortal, kept throwing herself into situations she shouldn’t survive, but Nile’s still-mortal instincts and few years of watching Andy’s back wouldn’t let her do that either. They just had to hope it would be enough. 

Booker decides that engineering is the way to go; he’s still one of the best of them at modern technology and hopefully he can get into a position to fudge the digital records of any anomalies. Quynh volunteers to join medical, and everyone takes a moment to imagine the most pit-viper-deadly of them all, still struggling with her violently mixed feelings towards humanity, in such a position. In the end they have to agree though, Nicky helping get her up to speed with modern medicine, because it’ll be useful to have someone there for the same reason of covering up when they’re supposed to be injured but aren’t. 

Copley sighs, and dutifully comes up with new fake identities for them, and even more dutifully allows for the identities to be connected with their post-landfall efforts even if he grumbles about it the whole way. 

When the recruitment for Jaeger pilots started half a year after that, the PPDC welcomed them with more eagerness than they expected, though apparently there had been some resistance to accepting what had clearly been mercenaries. It was easy enough to get Booker and Quynh out of combat duty with lies about injuries and truths about mental trauma. It was harder to get them to agree to keep the six of them together and avoid sharing images of them, but after seeing Andy thoroughly destroy every instructor in the first week, they acquiesced. 

And just like that, they were embroiled in the biggest fight of any of their lives, but at least they were going down fighting _together_. 


	2. But don't you know we're stronger now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Old Guard progress through their training, begin to test for Drift Compatibility, and start to make friends. 
> 
> OR
> 
> The author tries to convey pertinent information without getting too bogged down in the details.

The thing that they hadn’t really anticipated was how long everything would take. Nile still had very fresh memories of training camp and was handling it better than the others, but even she had been spoiled by over three years of running straight towards missions. The rest were struggling much more. 

Getting matched together like they wanted was easy- at this rate Nile was sure that any of them were probably Drift compatible with anyone else in their little, fucked up family. Nicky and Joe, however, put on a damn good show. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t be paying for any future dates.

They arrived at the proving grounds on Kodiak Island right as July was shifting into August. Andy’s demand had been accepted, but in the familiar way of the military agreeing to something while waiting to renege when you could no longer escape. They’d pressed their lips together and continued anyway, with Booker collecting their bets on how long it would take for them to change their minds. 

(Quynh ended up winning.)

The next day was straight into orientation. 

“The course is 24 weeks long, split into three courses that are eight weeks each. It will be both mentally and physically demanding to ensure you are prepared for the struggles of being a Ranger. Do not worry if you don’t make it to being a Ranger; there are other available roles in the fight for humanity that this course will also help prepare you for.” The recruiter said, sounding like they were reading off of a script. 

They’d all shared subtle glances; there wasn’t any chance of them ending up anywhere else. 

“24 weeks.” Joe lamented that night, with them all squished into his and Nicky’s quarters. Signing up as a couple had gotten them that small privilege of shared quarters. “It’s so long.” 

“It’s not like any of us know how to operate giant mechs with the power of our minds.” Nile pointed out with a smirk. “Not even you oldies.” 

“They’re going to try and teach us _battle tactics_.” Andy said with disgust. “I invented half of the goddamn modern military tactics.” 

“That’s an exaggeration.” Nicky said, mostly because of the look on Nile’s face. “But I understand your frustration, boss. It seems too long of a wait.” 

“Y’all’ve been spoiled by centuries of just slipping unnoticed into huge wars.” Nile noted, settling back on her hands where she was perched on the end of the bed and ostensibly working on her Italian, though she’d mostly just been listening to them complain with amusement. “Kinda hard with giant robots and monsters.” 

Luckily for the continued health of their new superiors, most of the first eight-week course was theoretical and unlikely to inspire Andy’s wrath. Nile likened it to officer training in the military and was the least jittery through it. 

Booker, with the hollowed out look of someone who’d been the tech guy for literal centuries, had been helping them through the J-tech and engineering aspects. Him and Nicky banded together to assist them with the K-science, even though it was only in its very basic beginnings. Most of the rest of it was simple science which they all had a good enough grasp of. 

Their single physical lesson in the first week was definitely the most interesting part of the week. 

“The point of this session is to ascertain your current physical and combat abilities and from that determine how to teach you what you will need to know.” The instructor said in the familiar snap of a drill sergeant that Nile kept reacting to instinctively. “You will demonstrate your current level by- yes, Recruit?” He fixed Andy with a withering glare as she lazily raised a hand. She didn’t react at all. 

“Can I skip this?” She asked, sounding dreadfully bored as she dropped her hand. 

“Skip it?” He repeated incredulously. “What’s your name, Recruit?” 

“Andy Marche, sir.” She replied.

“Marche.” He repeated. “No, you cannot bloody skip this. In fact, you’re going first. And you’ll be up against me.” 

He grinned nastily, but it didn’t have much on Andy’s satisfied smirk. Quynh was already side-eyeing a resigned looking Booker. 

Nile, for her part, wondered if the man was an idiot. Soldiers could usually spot other soldiers in the way they moved, the way they looked around, the ways they preferred to dress and keep their hair. Even some civilians clocked the other immortals due to their sheer intensity, despite their best efforts to not attract attention. It was the eyes, she reckoned. Their eyes showed the centuries weighing them down in ways that anybody could recognise, even if they weren’t quite sure why they were reacting the way they did, even if they didn’t notice anything else. 

This man, clearly ex-military, should have realised what was going to happen. 

As it was, an hour and an incredibly bruised ego later, their instructor had to be replaced by someone else and Andy was allowed to saunter off, Quynh giggling next to her. And not only because of all the money she was now owed. 

The rest of the first course went easily enough. Most of them were antsy at the long wait and surprisingly uncomfortable with being stationary for so long, but they settled into patterns nevertheless. 

Quynh, still uncomfortable in crowds and with loud noises, couldn’t eat in the commissary. Instead, Andy picked up meals for both of them in the commissary. Sometimes some of the others joined them, crowding together and laughing as they jostled elbows while eating too close together, but for the most part they stuck to eating in the commissary together. People seemed reluctant to sit with them, clearly recognising them as an established friend group, but sometimes other would-be Rangers joined them. Herc with his sullen but still excitable son, Chuck. Stacker with his calm resolve and questions and tips. Even, on a couple of rare occasions, the Kaidonovksys, seemingly eager to talk shop with fellow brawlers. 

Then the second course began, and most of the mental learning was left behind for the physical. 

Andy whined about having to learn a new fighting style- Jaeger Bushido- even after memorising over half of the positions on the first day they were shown them. Nile pointed that out, and that she’d learned 38 of 52 by the time she made that comment, under a week later. Everyone else chuckled and made jokes as the two of them bickered and unconsciously kept running through the forms. 

Perhaps most importantly, they started matching people up in practice to gauge Drift compatibility. 

Watching Joe and Nicky spar was an experience, and Nile quickly realised why she hadn’t seen it yet. The two of them anticipated each other’s moves flawlessly and weren’t afraid to get up close and personal. It felt intimate, more like she was watching a passionate dance than a fight, though it didn’t stop everyone else who hadn’t seen it before from staring. 

In the end it took six minutes for one of them to secure a win: Nicky, with his ever-present patience of a bowman turned sniper. Joe just laughed as he accepted the hand up, and took the next win five minutes after that. 

The instructor didn’t even bother having them continue further than that, and Nile wondered if he felt the same sense of awkward voyeurism as she did, watching them sweat and pant for air and grin with eyes only for each other. Either way, it was obvious the two were a perfect match for Drift compatibility. 

Andy and Nile did not have this benefit, mostly because Nile had been far too afraid of Quynh’s response. They also couldn’t sign up as siblings, for many obvious reasons, but at least they could ensure they sparred against each other first. 

Nile knew, realistically, that she often did fairly well against Andy, not just considering their difference in experience but also just in general. She also knew that these spars were more about seeing how well people could predict and read each other, and wasn’t necessarily about wins and losses. 

It still stung a little to recognise that Andy was fighting simpler than she usually did, cutting down on the number of styles she was mixing in. Sure, it made sense to not make the instructor too suspicious or confused, and they were trying to keep close to Jaeger Bushido, but it also put her and Nile on more even footing. And Nile still only won two times to Andy’s four. 

She felt a little better after watching Andy absolutely destroy everyone else in the room. The only ones to give her trouble were the Russian couple, who from what little Russian Nile could understand had mostly done so for the hell of it since they were already paired up. 

The instructor, in the end, decided that Nile with Andy was the closest they were going to get by a mile. Nile pulled a face at essentially being picked by default, but it was the result they wanted so she didn’t complain too loudly. Joe still let out a bark of laughter and patted her head as Quynh giggled behind her hand. 

“You did good, kid.” He assured her. 

“Yeah, yeah.” She grumbled, but failed to hide her smile. 

Quynh had spent the session hugging the wall closest to where Andy was at any point in time, only looking away from her to scrutinise her opponents and apparently find them lacking. Booker had parked himself in a corner with both a good view of the door and the training mats, and hadn’t moved. 

“Now that’s impressive.” 

He glanced aside to see Herc Hanson watching as Joe and Nicky went for another round, seemingly just for the hell of it. 

“Yeah.” He agreed. 

“They’re all pretty good.” He continued. “But I know better than to ask. You’re not fighting, though?” 

Booker’s lips quirked up, but Herc didn’t have to know him well to read that it wasn’t particularly happy. 

“Can’t.” He said, and tapped at the side of his head. “Not safe to Drift with.” 

Herc made an understanding sound and then grinned at him, wide and real but, Booker was surprised to note, with its own note of lingering melancholy. He didn’t actually know much about the Australian, trusting that Copley would have let them all know if anyone on the base was a concern.

“But you’re still on this course?” 

“I go where they go.” Booker said, because he wasn’t going to be seperated from them ever again if he could help it. “Besides, I can fight fine.” 

Herc’s grin widened. 

“Wanna go a few rounds anyway?” 

“Don’t you already have a partner?” He grumbled, mostly just in an attempt to get out of it. He glanced at Scott Hansen and fought to keep his reaction down. The man wasn’t a bad fighter, but he was aggressive and rough to the point that his fighting was sloppy. Booker could see so many exploitable holes, but then again he had hundreds of years experience on the man. 

“It’s just for the hell of it, you don’t have to.” He put his hands up, still with a smile in place. “Just figured you might wanna get your heart pumping.” 

“You know what? Sure.” Booker said. 

Herc wasn’t wrong, it _had_ been a while since he’d felt that exhilaration. Nile and Quynh were the only ones to spar with him anymore. With Nile he tried to simultaneously pull his punches, out of guilt, and fight properly, because he knew she’d be mad if she figured it out. It always left him more tense than when he started. Quynh, on the other hand, hadn’t left him with a great first impression in real life or in his dreams and was a whirling dervish in a fight. _Those_ fights just always left him anxious and in pain, unpleasant no matter how temporary it was.

“Yeah?” Herc said, jerking his head at an empty mat nearby. Booker caught some of the others watching subtly, but didn’t mention it. He tried his best to ignore the weight of the Guard’s eyes on him as he and Herc took their positions. “May the best man win. And by best, I mean me.” 

“ _Tu as les dents longues_.” Booker smirked back. 

Herc, unsurprisingly, made the first move. He wasn’t too far off from his brother in fighting style but had adapted well to Jaeger Bushido, something that Booker didn’t really have much of an advantage over him in. 

The first swing took him by surprise only because of the speed of it, but he blocked it easily and parried on instinct, only just remembering the proper stance to do so. 

Herc stepped back from it in a hasty dodge and grinned. 

“Fast.” He complimented. 

“Dirty.” Booker replied. The other man was clearly trained in boxing or kickboxing of some sort; he wasn’t the hardest to dodge or block but Booker knew he might be in a bit of trouble if he landed too solid of a hit. 

But maybe not the best at countering. So putting him on the defensive would be best. 

Booker struck out with a flurry of blows that were more thought out than they probably looked from the outside, aiming to try and break the solid root of the stance that Herc was using. 

Herc let out a short bark of laughter as he blocked them, being pushed back a bit but successfully shuffling his feet enough that he wasn’t unbalanced. However, Booker had been right- he wasn’t fast enough to get a successful counter in. 

At least, he wasn’t at first. Booker wasn’t too sure if he was doing what Booker thought he was doing until Herc actually _did_ pull off a successful counter. He’d been letting Booker fight freely to try to figure out his patterns of movement. 

The first counterattack from Herc he saw coming and successfully diverted. 

The immediate follow-up took him a little by surprise, but not quite enough. He caught it safely and moved to pin his arm but was then put off balance by a sudden kick to the knee. Within a second he found himself flipped but moved with it to minimise the damage, letting himself hit the mat and roll out of the way of the following attempt at a pin, breathing heavily.

“Stop playing with him, Book.” Andy snorted. He hadn’t noticed when they’d moved closer to watch around the mat, but it didn’t make him jump like Herc did. 

“Not everyone’s as extensively trained in hand-to-hand as you, boss.” He grumbled as he rolled to his feet. Fighting someone like this was very different to a life-and-death battle, which was where he had most of his experience. 

Herc seemed to have picked up on the problem as well, and relaxed his stance ever so slightly as he started, 

“If you-”

Booker used the opportunity to stop faking exhaustion and sweep his legs out from under him, pinning him on his back in the next second over the harsh bark of Andy’s laughter and a scoff that sounded like Joe behind him. 

“Oof.” Herc grunted as the wind was knocked out of him and then chuckled breathlessly. “Tricky bastard, ain’tcha?” 

All of the amusement drained out of him as he rolled off the man. 

“That’s me.” He agreed wearily, and reached out a hand to help him up while avoiding looking at the way his eyebrows furrowed at Booker’s reaction. 

“Let’s go.” Andy said to the Frenchman, lips twisted unhappily, and Booker followed them silently and only hunched in a little as Nile swung an arm around his shoulders. Quynh ignored Herc completely, but Nicky gave him an apologetic nod and Joe shrugged at him as they left. 

Well. They were certainly an odd group. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, my original idea for Andy's full fake name was Andy Mack, to make it sound like Andromache, but then I remembered that it's the name of a Disney TV show. Please ignore the fact that her actual last name basically means market. 
> 
> (If anyone was wondering, I wrote like 80% of this over the first few days of the US Election while listening to Mystery Skulls on loop. The rest of it took ages and was like pulling teeth. I'm still not that satisfied with it but, oh well.)

**Author's Note:**

> Unlike every other time, I do not have this planned at all. I'll probably continue this, with this being more of a vague prologue and further chapters being more in detail. And also all in past tense because that's far easier for me. Updates would be pretty sporadic now. 
> 
> (I don't think their infighting is silly or trivial at all, but they probably would! Also the comics are much darker in some ways, wow)


End file.
